FSFE's activities in the 6th EC Framework Programme led to the
SELF project. These pages here are
kept for archiving purposes.

6th EC Framework Programme

Involvement of the FSF Europe in FP6 began in March 2002, when Free
Software was not on the proposed agenda for activities within the
programme.

As a first step, a recommendation was written and (with
the support of over 50 parties throughout Europe) filed in April
2002. Within that recommendation the advantages of Free Software for
Europe were explained and recommendations on how to make them come
true were given.

The second step was filing two Expressions of
Interest, in which the FSF Europe together with some of the
signatories of the recommendation announced their interest in
undertaking Free Software activities in FP6.

The third step was exhibiting at the IST Conference &
Expo, November 5th 2002 in Copenhagen and hosting a "Free Software
Networking Session."

As of December 17th, 2002, Free Software has found its way into the
Information Society Technologies (IST) Work Programme (see press
release). Although using the misnomer "Open Source," which we
avoid for multiple reasons, page 7
of the work programme says that Free Software should be
encouraged. This translates into an evaluation bonus for Free
Software within FP6. Consortia with Free Software have higher
chances of getting funds than those with proprietary software.

Step 4

As the next step, we seek to gather people, companies and
institutes interested in Free Software related activities around FP6
on a mailing
list created for this purpose.

With the "hard core" of these people we will most likely seek to
start a "Co-ordinating Action" for Free Software that can help
Free Software consortia get off the ground.

Step 5

The FSF Europe will offer to help Free Software consortia the way
it is doing for AGNULA, a FP5 IST
Accompanying Measure. Also we will offer advice for those who
encounter problems along the way.

For those consortia who encounter internal problems or conflicts, the FSFE
will offer a neutral third party. As a non-profit NGO, we are free of immediate
commercial exploitation interests; our sole interest is the promotion and
success of Free Software. One of our projects that might help with this is the
Fiduciary Licence Agreement.

Remark

As many will know, activities on this level are often painstakingly
slow and take a lot of work. Althuogh the FSF Europe will try to do as
much as it can, its resources are limited by the amount of support
that it gets. So one way of speeding the process up supporting our work.

April 30th, 2002

Free Software is a concept
that has fundamentally changed the way some parts of the IT sector are
working towards a more stable, lasting and sustainable approach with higher
dynamics and increased efficiency. It is obvious that the first region to
adopt and support this principle on a larger scale can profit enormously and
get a head-start in the information age.